The exemplary embodiment relates to document scanners, such as are used in printers, copiers, and/or multifunction devices and, more particularly, to a belt driven document scanner suited to scanning of a variety of substrates and document sizes, such as normal, small, rigid, or delicate documents.
In existing printers and scanners, documents are generally fed through a document path using a series of driven rollers that transport the document from an input area and feed the document through a series of guides. The document is then scanned and output to an output tray. The document path from the input to output often includes several turns through the device. In the case of duplex scanning, the document path may flip the document after scanning of the first side in order to scan the second side of the document.
As such, existing scanners are limited to processing documents that are of appropriate size to be fed between sets of rollers and are capable of withstanding the stress of a complex document path. In the event that documents are small, rigid, or delicate, these systems are either incapable of operation or operate with significant risk of damage to the document.
There is a need for a two-sided document scanning device scanning for small, rigid, or delicate documents that are difficult to process with existing devices.